From Our Files

February

By Ronna Bolante

Published: 2007.02.01 12:00 AM

Feb. 1922:Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor to HONOLULU Magazine, pays tribute to Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole, who died on Jan. 7. As Hawai‘i’s delegate to Congress, he was best known for spearheading the creation of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. Although Kuhio had requested a simple funeral, “not even the power of a wish expressed by their beloved prince could influence the Hawaiian people against a state funeral,” Paradise writes. “In their hearts he was a king, and as a king he should go to his last rest. And perhaps because he was the last of their race to whom with propriety could be paid royal honors, the obsequies ... exceeded in splendor anything of the kind in the annals of Hawai‘i.” In the photo at right, pallbearers lower Kuhio’s casket into the crypt at the Royal Mausoleum while his widow, Princess Elizabeth (flanked by former Mayor John Lane and Princess Kapi‘olani), looks on.

Feb. 1962: With the recent filming of a major movie (Sanga Ari) and television show (APO 923, the most expensive TV pilot ever filmed) in the Islands, Paradise of the Pacific examines Hawai‘i’s fast-growing film industry. “From a single movie in 1932—MGM’s Pig Boat starring Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston and Jimmy Durante—there started a succession of Hawai‘i-based films, broken by the war years and restarted in 1950. Since 1950, some 24 major films have been made here,” Paradise reports. The top two photos at left are scenes from the 1961 Elvis Presley flick Blue Hawai‘i; the bottom two are from The Devil at 4 O’Clock, a 1960 film starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy.

Feb. 1947:An aerial view of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa on its 40th anniversary. The school celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

It takes guts to open a brick-and-mortar bookstore in the days of instant online gratification, but in da Shop, local publisher Bess Press has found a way to allow fickle/loyal readers to have their cake and eat it, too.